


Miracle Baby

by Hummingbird1759



Category: Better Call Saul (TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Childhood, Family Feels, Gen, Infertility, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 18:42:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6765484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hummingbird1759/pseuds/Hummingbird1759
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The reason Mr. and Mrs. McGill always saw Jimmy differently than Chuck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Miracle Baby

**Author's Note:**

> A novena (pronounced no-VEEN-ah) is a series of prayers said over nine days for a special intention.

As the seventh of eight children, Ruth Morgan had always expected to have a big family. Her mother was one of six children, her oldest sister Margaret had seven children (and counting!) and her aunts and uncles all had at least three children, except for Uncle Matt and Uncle Tim, who were priests, and Aunt Veronica, who was a nun. Priests and nuns weren’t allowed to have kids, but everybody who wasn’t a priest or a nun would have a lot of kids. That was the way the world worked in little Ruth’s mind.

Ruth married Charles McGill, the eldest of seven, at the age of twenty-one and she daydreamed about a troop of kids barreling down the stairs on Christmas morning, of First Communions and scouting events and graduations. She got pregnant not long after the wedding and at her baby shower, everyone made a point of saying that the baby gifts were “built to last.” Surely she and Charles would have their own baseball team before too long, just like Margaret and their mothers.

She didn’t remember much about going into labor with Chuck, probably because of the drugs they gave her. She woke up in the hospital, still in a fog, with a beautiful baby boy squalling in his father’s arms. Holding Chuck was the greatest joy she’d ever known.

Ten minutes later, she knew her greatest sorrow. The doctor came in and explained that there had been complications and that she and Charles should appreciate Chuck because he was the only child they’d ever have. It was impossible to say who cried harder that day – the baby or his parents.

Ruth decided that she would prove those doctors wrong. After all, nothing was impossible with God, and so she began praying. She asked the intercession of St. Anne, St. Elizabeth, and the Blessed Mother. She went to Mass and said rosaries every day. She made uncountable novenas to St. Gerard. All of it was to no avail.

Unanswered prayers stung, but not as badly as some of the comments from friends and family.

_“So, when are you going to have another one?”_

_“You know, only children are spoiled.”_

_“Charles is such a good father; you shouldn’t stop at one.”_

_“Don’t you want more children?_

Perhaps the worst was one afternoon when Chuck came home from second grade and asked, “Mom, how come I don’t have any brothers or sisters?”

Ruth narrowly avoided choking on her coffee before she replied, “Er… why do you ask?”

“Well, Tommy has two little brothers and a little sister, John has an older brother and a younger sister, Joey has an older brother, and Mary Elizabeth has _five_ older brothers and sisters _and_ a younger brother. Everybody at school has a brother or a sister except me!”

Ruth arranged her face into the sweet mask she’d used with her mother and sisters and the church ladies and told Chuck that she and his father wanted more children, but God had other plans and He knew best, and besides, he was such a wonderful boy that he was as good as ten children.

Chuck seemed satisfied with that answer and went outside to play. Ruth locked herself in the bathroom and quietly wept until it was time to get dinner started.

A year later, Ruth looked at a calendar and noticed something, or rather the _lack_ of something, but brushed it off. She’d gotten her hopes up a few times before and it just led to more heartbreak in the end. God had given her an answer to her prayers, she reminded herself, and she had to accept it even if it wasn’t the answer she wanted.

Still, one more novena wouldn’t hurt. She resolved that this would be the last one, and if God said no again, she’d stop asking.

Nine days later, she finished the novena but she didn’t have the obvious “no” she’d received so many times before. Hesitantly, she made a doctor appointment.

A week later, Charles McGill, Sr. walked in and found Ruth sitting on their bed, weeping. Gently, he put an arm around her and asked what was wrong.

“I went to the doctor today,” she sniffled.

Charles’ face fell and he gently took her hand.

“I’m pregnant,” she said, a megawatt smile breaking across her face. Charles’ whoop of joy was so loud, the neighbors heard.

Six months later, and after many more prayers for a safe pregnancy and delivery, James Morgan McGill entered the world as healthy as could be and smiling almost from the start. Ruth smiled down on him, radiant with joy. Whatever this little baby grew up to be, he would always be her miracle.


End file.
